Nearly one year after Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload storage site was shuttered on criminal charges filed by the United States government, the big man is back with a new cloud storage service, called simply Mega.

Why host in New Zealand? The site answers that one straight-on: “Among other important reasons, New Zealand's native Māori name is ‘Aotearoa,’ which means ‘Land of the long white cloud.’”

Teased for months, Ars and other media outlets were given an embargoed look at the site—which was broken Friday morning by TechCrunch. The site will formally launch and open its doors to the public on Sunday in the United States, one year to the day following the raid of Dotcom's mansion by New Zealand authorities.

The site is surprisingly simple, and it works more or less like other cloud storage services, à la Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, or RapidShare. However, unlike Dropbox, you have to interact with Mega through a desktop Web browser (and not through a mobile device or client app).

The upload and download speeds appear to be comparable to rival sites—the main advantage being that Mega keeps end-to-end encrypted data under a 2048-bit RSA key (and theoretically away from the prying eyes of government authorities).

Once you create an account, the first thing the site does is generate that crypto key for you. As a Firefox user, Mega also warned me to switch to Google Chrome, as not doing so would “adversely affect [my] file transfer performance." A browser switch later, and I was faced with a blank “file manager,” which was practically begging me to upload files.

My first choice? My wife’s podcast (shameless plug!), “Break the Line.” It moved along at a fairly nice pace of around 100kbps, considering I was using the site from a public Wi-Fi cafe. Within a couple minutes, I had sent my first file to Kim Dotcom’s servers in New Zealand. Among several different tests, I hit around 250kbps as a maximum. On a dedicated, high-speed home connection, you may get faster speeds.

Free vs. Pro?

I poked around some of the option pages and noticed that Dotcom was nice enough (at first) to give Ars a “Pro II” account, which comes with 100GB of storage. That’s double what the unwashed masses will get (50GB) but still a far cry from what he had originally promised (200GB). However, when I logged in a second time on Friday morning, this dropped back to 50GB with no explanation.

Another thing I noticed when I logged in earlier that has since disappeared is mention of “vouchers,” “purchase history,” and “transaction history,” which seems to suggest that users will be able to control downloaded files through a purchase mechanism. Subsequently, I have been downgraded to a Free account and I no longer have that option.

A quick glance at the “Pro” page suggests that a Pro I account corresponds with 500GB of storage and 1TB of transfers for €9.99 ($13.30) per month, while Pro II yields 2TB of storage with 4TB of transfers for €19.99 ($26.63) per month. Pro III serves up 4TB of storage with 8TB of transfers for €29.99 ($39.95) per month. (It is curious that Mega’s prices are denominated in euros when it is based entirely in New Zealand.)

I was also able to generate download links for individual files, but when I tried to pass them along to a co-worker who was not yet a Mega member, he received an “access denied” error message.

After all, on the site it specifically mentions sharing links to Mega-hosted files.

“First of all, a word of caution: The cryptographic security of your files depends on the confidentiality of the associated encryption keys,” the site states. “Make sure that you transmit them via protected channels only! Standard e-mail, for example, is not good enough. With that in mind, select one or multiple files in your file manager, then right-click and use ‘Get link.’ A dialog with the public link(s) to the file(s) you have selected will open. You can choose to export each link and key separately or as a single combo link.”

I was able to easily share files with fellow Ars editor Joe Mullin (who also received an invite.) I shared some of my wife’s podcasts with him, and they showed up on his file manager, instantly, with no notification. (I seemed unable to share entire folders with him, however, and could only do so with single files.)

Ars will be covering the launch from the Dotcom mansion in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday (US time) and hopefully we'll learn more details about how the site works and what Dotcom’s plans are for it then.

Promoted Comments

While MEGA seems cool, it looks like from what is in the story it's not going to be like the late Megaupload in one key way and that is that it does not appear that users can post a link to a file that anyone is able to download. It looks like from the story that to share a link you need to share your encryption key as well, which kind of negates sharing a file publicly. So, this is not a file sharing service then, or is there a way to share without requiring a key?

There's no difference - you can easily share the key with the link if you wish.

The difference is for Kim - he has no way of knowing what files are being stored, and so can't be put in the same situation he was in last time.

It looks like from the story that to share a link you need to share your encryption key as well, which kind of negates sharing a file publicly. So, this is not a file sharing service then, or is there a way to share without requiring a key?

It's a public/private key system, only you can encrypt files as yourself with the private key, but anyone you give the public key to can decrypt them. I'm not sure whether they store the keys on the mega servers anywhere, but if they don't it will make something like seizing the servers or intercepting traffic useless.

While MEGA seems cool, it looks like from what is in the story it's not going to be like the late Megaupload in one key way and that is that it does not appear that users can post a link to a file that anyone is able to download. It looks like from the story that to share a link you need to share your encryption key as well, which kind of negates sharing a file publicly. So, this is not a file sharing service then, or is there a way to share without requiring a key?

While MEGA seems cool, it looks like from what is in the story it's not going to be like the late Megaupload in one key way and that is that it does not appear that users can post a link to a file that anyone is able to download. It looks like from the story that to share a link you need to share your encryption key as well, which kind of negates sharing a file publicly. So, this is not a file sharing service then, or is there a way to share without requiring a key?

It feels more like google drive.There are files shared with 'everyone' but you still need an account to download them.

It looks like from the story that to share a link you need to share your encryption key as well, which kind of negates sharing a file publicly. So, this is not a file sharing service then, or is there a way to share without requiring a key?

It's a public/private key system, only you can encrypt files as yourself with the private key, but anyone you give the public key to can decrypt them. I'm not sure whether they store the keys on the mega servers anywhere, but if they don't it will make something like seizing the servers or intercepting traffic useless.

While MEGA seems cool, it looks like from what is in the story it's not going to be like the late Megaupload in one key way and that is that it does not appear that users can post a link to a file that anyone is able to download. It looks like from the story that to share a link you need to share your encryption key as well, which kind of negates sharing a file publicly. So, this is not a file sharing service then, or is there a way to share without requiring a key?

There's no difference - you can easily share the key with the link if you wish.

The difference is for Kim - he has no way of knowing what files are being stored, and so can't be put in the same situation he was in last time.

(It is curious that Mega’s prices are denominated in euros when it is based entirely in New Zealand.)

He originally announced hosting in Gabon - who promptly told him to go piss up a rope. Regardless, perhaps the euro made more sense there? It may be a function of how long this has been in development, and his original plans for it - though changing the default units of currency doesn't seem like a major change to me.

Like Visbis444, I also got the impression that the key could be shared with the url from the article, can ars confirm? The fact that one link can share multiple files is also pretty cool. What happens if for example the link shares readme.txt, updates.txt, hirez-textures.zip, & install.exe... What does the resulting page look like when the shared url is visited?

It's a public/private key system, only you can encrypt files as yourself with the private key, but anyone you give the public key to can decrypt them. I'm not sure whether they store the keys on the mega servers anywhere, but if they don't it will make something like seizing the servers or intercepting traffic useless.

That doesn't make terribly much sense. Encryption is meant to hide information, so if the public key decrypts everything, it doesn't sound like encryption. And I'm not sure why one would need a private key to encrypt: presumably access to one's account would be restricted by a password anyway. Now, if there were a per-file decryption key that one could share, that would make more sense.

It's a public/private key system, only you can encrypt files as yourself with the private key, but anyone you give the public key to can decrypt them. I'm not sure whether they store the keys on the mega servers anywhere, but if they don't it will make something like seizing the servers or intercepting traffic useless.

That doesn't make terribly much sense. Encryption is meant to hide information, so if the public key decrypts everything, it doesn't sound like encryption. Now, if there were a per-file decryption key that one could share, that would make more sense. And I'm not sure why one would need a private key to encrypt: presumably access to one's account would be restricted by a password anyway.

My reading of it was that a different public key is presented for each file, if you choose to share the files as a batch.

I'd love to use this as a backup site. Hopefully folder syncing tools will be available shortly after launch. I use my free 25GB on Skydrive currently for files and 26GB on Picasaweb for photos. Would be nice to have this for both.

How is 100kbps, a speed barely twice that of 56k dial-up, "fairly nice"?

Edit: even for a public wifi location as mentioned

You clearly don't understand network traffic. 56k will never realize 56k data in either direction due to overhead of frames and packets. Add on top of that a very noisy line and dated protocol that didn't handle that noise well.

100k upload on a regular dsl is a very typical speed, especially since most consumer dsl lines are capped at less than 1m. Given that there is also the same frame and packet overhead, there are other people using the connection. So yes, 100k is fairly nice.

How is 100kbps, a speed barely twice that of 56k dial-up, "fairly nice"?

Edit: even for a public wifi location as mentioned

You clearly don't understand network traffic. 56k will never realize 56k data in either direction due to overhead of frames and packets. Add on top of that a very noisy line and dated protocol that didn't handle that noise well.

100k upload on a regular dsl is a very typical speed, especially since most consumer dsl lines are capped at less than 1m. Given that there is also the same frame and packet overhead, there are other people using the connection. So yes, 100k is fairly nice.

While MEGA seems cool, it looks like from what is in the story it's not going to be like the late Megaupload in one key way and that is that it does not appear that users can post a link to a file that anyone is able to download. It looks like from the story that to share a link you need to share your encryption key as well, which kind of negates sharing a file publicly. So, this is not a file sharing service then, or is there a way to share without requiring a key?

You can share your keys, but yes, it is clearly less convenient than the pirate haven that MU was.

How is 100kbps, a speed barely twice that of 56k dial-up, "fairly nice"?

Edit: even for a public wifi location as mentioned

You clearly don't understand network traffic. 56k will never realize 56k data in either direction due to overhead of frames and packets. Add on top of that a very noisy line and dated protocol that didn't handle that noise well.

100k upload on a regular dsl is a very typical speed, especially since most consumer dsl lines are capped at less than 1m. Given that there is also the same frame and packet overhead, there are other people using the connection. So yes, 100k is fairly nice.

How is 100kbps, a speed barely twice that of 56k dial-up, "fairly nice"?

Edit: even for a public wifi location as mentioned

You clearly don't understand network traffic. 56k will never realize 56k data in either direction due to overhead of frames and packets. Add on top of that a very noisy line and dated protocol that didn't handle that noise well.

100k upload on a regular dsl is a very typical speed, especially since most consumer dsl lines are capped at less than 1m. Given that there is also the same frame and packet overhead, there are other people using the connection. So yes, 100k is fairly nice.

??? 12.5KB/s is nice?

you know that is a typo smartass.

I guess you didn't since you posted that irrelevant long-winded reply. Plus, once is a typo, twice isn't.

I don't think it's too much to ask that a tech blog use the right units. If we are to believe the article, this service is shit slow. Seems like something that you'd strive to get right when writing an article and referencing network speeds.

It would be an interesting service but honestly to put your backups on a service you know that certain entities are going to be looking to shutdown seem dangerous. I'd prefer Amazon's Glacier service which is very low costs for long term storage.